Aborigine leader warns on welfare A prominent Aboriginal leader has called for a radical overhaul of Australia's benefits system to help native communities escape from poverty. Noel Pearson has warned that a reliance on state handouts has caused psychological harm in many settlements. Some economists have insisted that Aborigines may have to leave their impoverished homelands to break free of the so-called welfare trap. Many black Australians live in poverty and are permanently unemployed.

Lobbyist charged with defrauding tribesMichael Scanlon, partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, was charged Friday with conspiring to defraud Indian tribe clients of millions of dollars in a scheme that lavished golf trips, meals and campaign donations on a member of Congress.

Indians Vow to Protest in Colombia
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Indians who have seized control of 18 large farms vowed Friday to stage protests across the country after land reform talks with President Alvaro Uribe ended without any agreements.

Two Maori activists cleared of charges
Two members of a self-styled Maori security force have been cleared of demanding money with menaces from a Gisborne motelier.
After a depositions hearing at Gisborne District Court, JPs found Sue Wyliam Nikora, 69, who calls herself the "Prime Minister of the Sovereign Government of Aotearoa", and Elijah Matenga, 32, had no case to answer.

County Threatens to Take Baby Because Dad is a Sex Offender - (and Indian Chief)
DaiShin WolfHawk, who is unemployed, said he lives about 20 miles from the home Melissa shares with her father. He says he is the chief of the Unole E Quoni, an American Indian tribe, which he says has 175 families in eight states, but is not recognized by any state or the federal government.

Australia: Tribunal to tackle ‘Nigger’ name caseQUEENSLAND: An Aboriginal activist’s long battle to have the word “nigger” removed from a Queensland sporting stadium grandstand is set to go before the state’s anti-discrimination tribunal. Academic and author Stephen Hagan has fought for six years to have the ES Nigger Brown sign at the Toowoomba Athletic Oval taken down, saying the word “nigger” denigrated Aboriginal and dark-skinned people. Mr Brown, who died in 1972 aged 74, was a Caucasian Australian believed to have earned the nickname because of his extremely fair complexion or because he had a penchant for using “Nigger Brown” shoe polish. - (spardeous)

British Museums to Return Human Remains
LONDON -- The British Museum and eight other leading institutions plan to return human remains to indigenous communities abroad, according to a new British law. Culture Minister David Lammy said the change was a "response to the claims of indigenous peoples, particularly in Australia, for the return of ancestral remains."

Australia: Oxfam slams indigenous land reform
PLANS to allow traditional owners to lease out entire towns on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory have been criticised by a major aid organisation.The Federal Government wants to allow Aboriginal communities in the Territory to offer 99-year leases on their land to help boost their economic prosperity and raise the level of home ownership. But Oxfam Australia said the changes are unnecessary and fail to address the real needs of indigenous Australians.

Mother in Custody Fight for Unborn Child
Expectant mother Melissa WolfHawk worries about losing her baby boy to the county child welfare agency, which has threatened to seek custody after his birth to protect him from his father, a convicted sex offender. At issue is her relationship with her husband of three years, DaiShin WolfHawk (aka John Joseph Lentini) , who served more than a decade in New York state prisons for rape, attempted rape, sodomy and attempted sodomy in a case involving two teenage girls. She also is fighting for custody of the couple's other child, a 21-month-old girl currently living with another family in Maryland, and believes some of her problems have been motivated by prejudice against American Indians. WolfHawk describes himself as the chief of an American Indian tribe.

New Zealand: Man attacked by three Maori with own sword near home
A Mangere man who took a sword to stop a noisy fracas outside his home paid for it with his life, the High Court at Auckland was told. Blair Graham Harvey was overpowered and attacked with the weapon which was stuck into his eye, almost to the back of the skull. He died three hours later in hospital, in the early hours of October 3 last year, from brain damage. The three men accused of his murder are: - Sione Laungaue, 19, Siosifa Takamara Tupou, 19, and Sefanaia Tuituiohu Tupou, 21. All three had Mr Harvey's blood on their clothes- (-88-)

Canada: Idle aboriginal force has funding severed
They've been paid half a million dollars of taxpayers' money for more than a year to twiddle their thumbs. Now, Ottawa and Quebec are immediately suspending the salaries of 12 aboriginal peacekeepers until the fractured community of Kanesatake, west of Montreal, allows them in to do their jobs. - (Canada)

New Zealand's Maori Party Wins Four SeatsWELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A new political party representing New Zealand's Maori won four of seven Parliament seats set aside for indigenous people in elections dominated by an opposition party's vow to scrap Maori privileges. Don Brash, leader of the main opposition National Party, got a boost for his campaign after saying that if his party won power he would eliminate the seven seats that can be held only by Maori. He called that a form of apartheid, saying he would end all affirmative action programs for Maori.

The
Ignoble Savage By Thomas S. Garlinghouse Bashers of Western civilization
wax nostalgic over an imagined Golden Age, when Noble Savages, uncontaminated
by capitalism, enjoyed peace, harmony and environmental balance. In reality, prehistoric
peoples waged incessant, brutal wars and hunted vast numbers of animal species
to extinction - perhaps even the woolly mammoth and other great Ice Age creatures
of North America.